In Brief: Chinese firms to build Google Play-like app; Govt looking into predatory pricing in ecommerce

Chinese smartphone giants Xiaomi, Huawei Technologies, Oppo and Vivo have come together to create a platform like Google Play for developers outside China, The Economic Times reported. The platform aims to make it easier for developers of games, music, movies and other apps to market their apps in overseas markets, the report said. 

Piyush Goyal says ecommerce predatory pricing complaints being examined

Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday that the government is looking at allegations on some of the ecommerce companies engaging in predatory pricing, The Economic Times reported. The current foreign direct investment (FDI) policy on the ecommerce sector specifies that companies operating a marketplace model business in the sector will not directly or indirectly influence the sale price of goods or services. The newspaper, citing Goyal, said that ecommerce companies having foreign investments can operate only a marketplace model and there are restrictions on the inventory-based model of ecommerce.

Micron Technology ships first mass-produced, low-power DDR5 DRAM 

Idaho, US-based semiconductor company Micron Technology has shipped the world’s first low-power DDR5 dynamic random access memory (DRAM) in mass production, which will be used in the soon-to-be-launched Xiaomi Mi 10 smartphone. Micron, Xiaomi’s technology partner, will provide LPDDR5 DRAM with superior power efficiency and faster data access speeds to meet growing consumer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G functionality in smartphones. “Micron’s leadership in delivering the industry’s first low-power DDR5 DRAM for use in a smartphone will accelerate enablement of 5G and AI applications. Our customers and partners require next-generation memory solutions, based on the latest process technology, that drives unmatched power and performance to support 5G and AI systems. Micron’s LPDDR5 DRAM addresses those requirements with a 50% increase in data access speeds and more than 20% power efficiency compared to previous generations,” Raj Talluri, senior vice president and general manager of the mobile business unit at Micron, said. 

Read: Micron unveils global development centre in Hyderabad, to hire 2,000 employees in India